Seed, Bulb, Plant Inventory Software

Tom wrote,
At 01:59 AM 10/3/2009, you wrote:
>A couple of years ago I spent quite a lot of time investigating
>various relational database possibilities, aware that having made a
>choice I was unlikely to want to change my mind. In the end I went
>for Filemaker, a database program similar to Microsoft Access in
>concept but much easier for a layman to work with. It's available in
>Mac and Windows versions (important for me, because I'm a Mac
>devotee). Anyone who is contemplating purchasing a database program
>should at least consider Filemaker as an alternative to Access or the
>various open source alternatives. For what it's worth, the JC
>Raulston Arboretum database manager, who has long experience of both,
>told me recently that she regards Filemaker as vastly superior to
>Access for horticultural applications. Her boss, who dislikes
>computers, agreed.
I agree. I have used Filemaker for about 15 years ( I still am using
an older version, and it has faithfully followed me from version to
version of Windows). It is available from the Claris Corporation, but
it's not cheap.
I haven't tried exporting the files to Excel, which I find awkward to
use, but I do export them to Word documents sometimes, although you
can print them directly from Filemaker in various layouts. I find the
design of layouts pretty intuitive, and you can easily make several
numbered layouts and then just switch with a single click to display
the database in whichever one suits your present purpose. The only
problem I have with it is that when you want to print in columnar
format, it will not always print all the text in a field that has to
wrap; perhaps a newer version will have solved this problem.
If you're wondering why I would bother to print it at all, I do so in
order to have a paper copy that I can refer to when inventorying my
bulb collection, something I'm doing right now. I actually lost the
bulb database when my previous computer fried last December, but
fortunately I had sent a copy of the database a few years ago to John
Lonsdale, who, being the computer expert he is, still had it, and was
able to send it back to me. (Another good thing about Filemaker is
that the databases don't use much memory.) I had to re-enter it, but
this has been instructive and I've been able to add information that
I didn't anticipate wanting originally.
It's very useful to go back to the actual plants and inventory them
annually, even if you don't have a nursery. You can think about what
has survived or not, and why. And you can keep track of what you've
moved for one reason or another (my database has a field for what
section of my bulb frames each item is in), so if someone wants a
certain dormant bulb, you can probably find it. Of course, when I
move my bulbs to a bulb house next year, the location field will all
have to be changed, but I can mark a paper copy as I plant them; I'll
have to put stakes with an alphanumeric grid on the raised beds I'm
planning in the bulb house.
Jane McGary
Northwestern Oregon, USA